Thetownend.com

Grant Smith spent 2 seasons at the County Ground after signing from Sheffield United in 2003. His spell at Swindon was certainly an eventful one. ‘My Swindon Town Review’ has caught up with Grant, who gives his views on his time at Swindon, including Kangaroo Court with Alan Reeves, his 'complex' relationship with Andy King, red-hot form in 2005 and the story behind his transfer to Bristol City...

http://stfcreview.blogspot.com/2012/01/q-with-grant-smith.html (http://stfcreview.blogspot.com/2012/01/q-with-grant-smith.html)

Good read that.

Think he wanted a vent? ;)

These are good reads, but they hurt my eyes. Can you make the site a more user-friendly colour please?

Yeah good read but good god my eyes are killing me.

So turns out Alan Reeves was a massive cunt who tried bleeding the club dry. Always hated Reeves.

Very enjoyable read

Interesting stuff.

Basically he holds a grude against any manager who doesnt play him every game in his favourite position.  He was shit hot that 04/05 season though.

Thought he was a cunt when he missed a last minute pen v Dongs....nothing in that read to change that view.

king does sound more of a cunt than i first thought however. I would have loved to see igoe spankin one at him from 40 yards hahaha

Good read that and more depth than the Duke one. Clearly doesn't like Reeves but he didn't pick the team did he?
The manager did.

he comes across as a bit of a cunt.

as do most of the team

I like the way he says King's a cunt, but Gary Johnson is much worse and is an awful man. He then says how Gary always says a player finds their level and he remarks how Gary Johnson has now found his after thinking he was Mourinho at City. :D

It's quite insightful to hear such frank comments about football managers because they're some what of an unknown quantity in reality.

Also goes to show how much truth there is in the long-held prejudices of the crowd. In this case, that King was an over-promoted scout who could pick a player but not manage, and that he was a bit of a tool.

Thanks for the feedback.

We have one with Andy King himself which we aim to publish in February

Hopefully you query Duke and Smith's comments about him, that should be interesting.

Have you done it already. if so why wait?

Northampton have told us he will do one end of the month as he is busy in the transfer market and concentrating getting out the bottom 3 this month. No joke..!

Not sure we can query Duke and Smith's comments due to King being in employment and don't want to cause an up rift.

Ask him why he told swindon fans to 'fuck off' when they asked for his autograph.

If you want to learn more about Andy King, read Christian Roberts book.

Didnt someone on here ask him whether he had been working out as he looked a lpt more trim? Kingy turned round and said no, he had aids

:Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Oh he nicked ralphys lighter once aswell iirc

Got to love a bit of gossip.

Duke used to get all sorts of stick for being King's 'favourite' and it looks like the guy couldn't stand him. This amused me especially as I always thought Duke was harshly treated. Worth some stick? Of course! But he was in no way the worst player within the era that he featured. The only time he really annoyed me was when he was sent-off at Bristol City for essentially not retreating from a free-kick (and we still won that game).

Grant Smith's case is interesting, I always figured that it was financial which it was (with extra reasons). Smith's career says it all really.

The bitter and probably valid Gary Johnson's comments were greatly amusing.

I would certainly focus your Q&A's on players who have nothing to lose if they answer frankly and honestly.

In Robbos book he says Kingy didn't give a fuck what the players got up to in the week as long as they did the business in the games - obviously this approach got abused

I'd love to go on the piss with Kingy

I think these are really good, especially with the guys out of the game, well done.

Off the field I hated most of that crowd of players he mentions. Andy Nicholas was sound but Matt Heywood and Sean O'Hanlon were cunts.

Hope for Grant Smith's sake he doesn't have to cross Andy King in the future is he does ever make it as a football agent. Actually I don't really care if he does.
Treated unfairly or not he did leave us for City, and I remember how disappointed I was by that. If Mooney had an interview saying the same reasons for going to Oxford would anyone care?

The comments on Johnson are brilliant.

I served Andy Nicholas in JJB about two weeks after starting.

About a week before he left us.

Wanted size 11 Preds iirc.
We didn't have em..

Brutally yet refreshingly honest. Good read.

You've changed my life.

That was the aim of my story..

Although we all think you are a god, we will not start a religion.

Suggism? Suggity?

Suggestions anyone?

That would be Madness!

Was it crispy asking?

Grant Smith is in a good company of players who have achieved fuck all before or since playing for Swindon.  He had one good half-season and thought he was better than he was.  He played well in a tremendous team which in all honesty was too good for League One at the time.  Looking back, had Kingy been replaced for our playoff season, and we'd had someone with a bit of professionalism who didn't have favourites and stopped players smoking post-match, we'd have probably won the league at a canter.

Reading about players going out and getting cunted (and glasses of pre-match wine the night before) is sickening when you consider the wages they earn are significantly higher than they could ever hope to earn if they were outside of football.  A bit of professionalism wouldn't go amiss.  I'm not saying fourth tier footballers need to be a saint, but the impression I get is STFC was a free-for-all under King's reign.

That said, I was pro-King (mostly - except after Oldham at home and the 7 game losing streak).   :D

I'm liking these Q&A's, each player so far has seemed refreshingly honest.

Kingy certainly isn't coming over too well in any of them so far!

Grant was a great player for half a season - coincidentally the only time he played consistently in the middle. He had good pace and was evil in the tackle, plus he did have a great knack of arriving in the box at the right time.

So it turns out whatevery one had suspected. King was indeed a piss poor manager who had an eye for the odd player and had one good season. Did King manage any other side after us?

Grays Athletic I think - it lasted about a month?

Ah thats right I remember now, think he took over from Frank Worthington?

Wycombe?

Brian Clough seemed to do ok with that style of management. Forest won the European Cup after Clough had ordered all his players to have a pre-match beer or glass of wine. I'm not saying King was in the same league as Clough as a manager but it's impossible to say whether any individual manager's style is right or wrong. Clough was also pretty piss-poor at the man management side of things but I doubt if anyone would argue against him being one of the greatest managers of all time.

Two players that were in Kingy's team have been interviewed so far. Both have slated him. But then both players were pretty much universally slated by the Swindon fans when they were there. Grant Smith, in any case, slated just about everyone in his interview - he sounds like another Pericard; nothing's his fault, always somebody else's. Whatever anyone thinks of King he was manager during one of the toughest periods of the club's history and for one memorable season did a magnificent job in getting us to the play-offs, and nobody can deny that he brought in some great players. I've always had a lot of time for him and couldn't really give a toss what a couple of bitter sounding ex-players think of him.

The way he said Peace at the end deeply annoyed me for some reason
Can't wait to read the Kingy one

Yeah good shout, or his mum! Liked the bit about Johnson being an arrogant 2 faced shit. Good luck yeovil players!